New CHANNEL BUZZ

The global economic downturn was the topic that kept coming up repeatedly at the 2009 Mobile VAS Forum (Miami, June 8-10) but we also had the chance to hear from operators, technology vendors and industry experts about their expectations for Latin America in 2009-2010.

These are the topics that I think are worth keeping an eye on:

• Mobile Advertising is a hot topic, increasingly relevant in a year where subscribers will limit spending. I recently posted about Marcelo Castelo's presentation with case studies from Brazil (MobilePedia: World Class Mobile Marketing from LatinAmerica). Marcelo's presentation, showing different ways of successfully engaging customers through messaging, games and downloads, proves that Brazil is ahead of the curve when it comes to Mobile Marketing in Latin America and up to par with best practices worldwide.
• Messaging is still a relevant topic, with many opportunities in the region, not only in countries with low usage but also new opportunities with MMS, PushMail and Instant Messaging. I have posted about these opportunities before (see Telefonica Movistar (finally) moving in with SMS 2.0 in Latin America and LATAM 2009: A Mosaic of Opportunities).
• Another topic that got my attention is SIM based applications. Gemalto has been pushing  SIM based applications for several years now with moderate success (address book backup is one of the best examples). With mobile applications and smartphones taking off in other markets (Mobile Applications, Smartphones will drive industry growth; AppStore "miles ahead" of its rivals) applications for low end handsets that provide the same services to the mass market as those available for the high end market become increasingly relevant. Recently we posted about Movistar's launch of SMS 2.0 / GSMA Personal IM (Telefonica Movistar (finally) moving in with SMS 2.0 in Latin America) with a SIM application to address the mass market / low end handset subscribers.

All of the above mentioned opportunities have either been on hold for several years or were launched with moderate to minimal success in some markets. However, the market may be shifting and the time might be right for these opportunities; we will continue to explore them in more detail in future posts.